Botanist

Member

Philosophical Society of New South Wales

Designer

Centennial Park

The largest urban park in the southern hemisphere, developed as a parkland since the early days of European settlement. It also gives its name to the small residential suburb on its western fringe, whose most famous resident was Nobel Prize winning novelist Patrick White.

Acclimatisation Society of New South Wales

Society established to procure, introduce and acclimatise exotic species of flora and fauna to a perceived alien landscape. Whilst this was a two way process, for example black swans to England, red deer and even boa constrictor were imported to Australia to augment the rabbits, goat and pigs that had come with the First Fleet.

Royal Society of New South Wales

President

Centennial Park

A sandy swampy tract of land, skirted by roads based on Aboriginal tracks, the land that became Centennial Park was set aside as a common by Macquarie in 1811. Later the swamps in the park supplied Sydney's water, first by card and later via Busby's Bore. In 1888 the area was designated a public park commemorating 100 years since the founding of the colony. The park was designed, planted, neglected and refurbished over the next century and more, and remains one of Sydney's great spaces.

Garden Palace

Whilst the Garden Palace was a brief and fiery addition to the Sydney landscape, the decision to hold an International Exhibition in 1879 was to place the city on the world stage.

Scots

Scots have been in Sydney from earliest European contact, with Forby Sutherland, a young Scottish crew member on the Endeavour, buried at Sutherland in 1770. Scots have played important roles in all facets of Sydney's history. While the Scots can seem to be 'invisible immigrants', without a clearly distinctive culture, Scottish professions, industry, religion and education have been influential in Sydney's development since the arrival of the First Fleet.

Maiden, Joseph

Botanist, curator, writer and teacher, Joseph Maiden brought knowledge about Australia's plants into the public realm through his influence on the collections and programs of the Technological Museum and the Botanic Gardens and his emphasis on the creation of useful and practical science.

Moore Steps

The design of Moore Steps that we see today follows a drawing signed by the City Engineer, Edward Bell, in 1868 but it was not the first design undertaken for this stairway.